police

Reading the Riots is a fascinating investigation into the UK summer riots, led by the Guardian and the London School of Economics. I stumbled upon it via Twitter and after looking at various pieces on the website, it left me with a great sense of pride.

The anonymous columnist has a long and distinguished tradition in newspaper and magazine history. Recent practitioners like the londonpaper's City Boy and the ghastly Julie Myerson (who thrice denied being the author of the Guardian's Living With Teenagers column before fessing up) were treading in the foosteps of far more illustrious journalists such as William Connor, who wrote the Daily Mirror's legendary Cassandra column for many years and ended up with a knighthood.

After reading this article on Pistonheads, I was quite surprised to find that it said 'it is understood that police officers are furious at the reduction in their powers'. Well, I say surprised but in all honesty it is quite clear why they would be. After all, who would dare want a cut in the amount of paperwork over minor offences? Why try and make it easier for officers to catch real criminals? How dare they take away the burden on officers to chase after motorists making petty mistakes?